Latest California Wildfire Map: Where Are Fires Still Burning?

Nine large wildfires continued burning in California Friday as more than 10,000 firefighters worked to contain the flames. Some 15,000 people were still under evacuation orders, while almost 7,000 structures were destroyed, according to Cal Fire's latest summary.

At least 42 people were killed by the fires so far, while an estimated 50 were still missing. The wildfires have been estimated to cause at least $1 billion in damage to insured properties, according to the Associated Press, though officials expected the losses to climb “dramatically.”

“We’re searching every place that burned for a victim that we may have missed,” said Sonoma County Sheriff Rob Giordano, according to NBC News.

What officials dubbed “Cal Fire Siege” began Sunday, October 8. Since then, authorities have responded to 250 new wildfires. During its peak, 21 major wildfires burned across the state, burning over 245,000 acres and forcing the evacuation of 100,000 people. Most of the devastation occurred Oct. 8 and Oct. 9 as flames tore through California’s wine country, including Sonoma and Napa counties.

“The estimates are in structures and are mostly homes,” said Cal Fire spokesperson Daniel Berlant. “But also includes commercial structures and outbuildings like barns and sheds.”

A storm system was expected to hit Northern California along with cooler temperatures in the coming days, allowing firefighters better conditions in which to fight the flames. However, conditions might not remain optimal for long.

“Dangerous fire weather conditions may return to much of California next week, with record or near-record warmth and gusty winds possible,” Weather.com meteorologist Brian Donegan said Thursday.

California Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order Wednesday to speed up recovery in the state. The order extended the ban on price gouging until April 2018, increased the hiring of first responders and recovery workers, allowed wineries to relocate some of their operations and temporarily suspended fees for mobile homes.

Authorities announced this week they stopped the spread of most of the fires but were still working to put out the flames in some areas.

“We have a lot of work to do still,” said Bret Gouvea, incident commander for Cal Fire, according to NBC News. “We have a lot of hot areas on these fires, but we have stopped the forward progress and movement of all these fires.”

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